Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group / Word Lists / Shildon C20/mid

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SHILDON C20/MID - WORD LIST BY JAMES BLENKIN

James Blenkin was born at Shildon in the south of Co.Durham in 1925, but left the North-East in 1951. He sent in this word list in 2003 which therefore applies to the 1930s and 1940s. He writes: "My Mother's family were miners, and more latterly railway men... When I was three my sister married a local farmer's son and the farm was my scene as a boy..."

Aa / Ah - I (first person singular)
agane - against
aad - old
Aa's - I am
aye - yes

babba - baby
Back end - Autumn
bad - ill, unwell
bairn - child
bait - packed meal, sandwiches etc., to take to work
bank - hill, slope on road
bat - [to] hit, strike
beal - [to] roar (like a bull)
beck - stream
beestlins - thick, first milk after calving
belang - belong
belly-wark - belly ache
bide - [to] stay
bink - stone bench (as in farm dairy)
bit - small amount of
blackclock - cockroach
blackie - blackbird
bleeberry - bilberry
blair - loud crying (by a child)
blaa - [to] blow (as with wind, gale, etc.)
blinnd - blind
blogged - blocked
boiley - crustless bread with warm milk and sugar (invalid dish)
bonny - pretty, attractive
braffen - horse collar (jokingly, man's shirt collar)
brambles - blackberries (the fruit, not the plant)
brazen (short 'a') - cheeky (often with 'fond')
bray - [to] beat, chastise (with blows)
brocken - broken
byre - cow house

cack - excrement
canna - cannot
canny - nice, pleasant or considerable ("a canny while" - a long time)
carlings - traditional brown peas on Sunday prior to Palm Sunday in Lent
catched - caught
chaffie - chaffinch
champion - good, excellent (term of approbation)
chare - street, steep street e.g. Durham Chare in Bishop Auckland
checkers - draughts (Bishop Auckland)
chucky in 'chucky hen', or diminutive of 'Charles'
clocker - broody hen
chimley - chimney
claes - clothes
clarts - mud
cleg - horsefly
click - become a sweetheart, make lasting friendship with opposite sex
clout - article of clothing
cockle - [to] retch, clear phlegm from throat
cogly - unsteady, unstable
caad - cold
coop cart - two wheeled farmer's cart, with a tippable body
coo - cow
cushy - cow, also 'cushy-cow'
crack - talk, conversation
cracket - three-legged small (milking?) stool
cow-up - cry to bring cows in from field for milking
cree - shed for pigeons
creel - fish basket; "tipple your creels" - somersault
creep - [to] crawl (as by small child, prior to walking)
craa - crow; 'Ralphy Crow' ('Ralph' pronounced 'raaf')
crowdy - bran mash e.g. for rabbits or hens
cuddy-wifted - left-handed
currack - dry stone pillar (landmark on moors)
cushat - wild pigeon

dee - [to] die; [to] do
deed - dead
deef - deaf
dike - both ditch and hedge ridge
dinnet - do not ("Aa dinnet knaa" I don't know)
dothery - shaky, unsteady
dowly - dismal (as in weather)
drift - horizontal entrance to mine
fadge - flat loaf of bread father (with short 'a')
feckless - uncaring of personal appearance, careless
femmer - delicate, easily broken or damaged
fend - [to] look after, manage
fettle - [to] mend; noun - state, condition
flags - square or rectangular paving-stones
flee - fly (an insect)
flit - [to] change residence, move (furniture etc.)
foisty - musty, damp smelling
fond - silly
fower - four
fret - fine rain, heavy mist ("sea fret")
fraa - from

gadger - man (derogatory)
gallower - horse
galluses - braces (to keep trousers up)
gam - [to] mock: "thu's makken gam o' me")
gan - [to] go; gannen - going
Geordies - inhabitants of N.County Durham and S. Northumberland
Ah've getten - I have got
girn - [to] pull a grotesque face, or expression
gissy - pet name for a pig - 'gissy pig'
giss-giss - used when calling for a free pig
gleg - [to] glance, look at
gowk - apple core
goosegob - gooseberry
golly - unfledged wild bird
gowping - staring
gripe - garden fork
gully - large (kitchen) knife

hacky - dirty
heed - head
hind - agricutural labourer
hinny - dear (term of affection to younger person)
hoit / oit - abusive term
haud / had - [to] hold: "haud on't" - hold on to it
haway / howay - come on!
hoy - [to] throw, cast
on hunkers - squat[ting]

jacky blue-cap - blue tit
jarp - [to] crack hard-boiled egg (Easter egg) with another. A competitive game at Easter. Holder of uncracked egg wins the cracked one.

kelter - rubbish, heap of unsorted objects
ken - [to] know
kep - [to] catch e.g. a ball
ket - rubbish, trash
kidder - youngster, younger brother

lad - boy
lang - long
lap - [to] wrap
lass - girl
lead - [to] carry esp. on horse-pulled cart
lonnen - lane
look - [to] weed esp. in cornfield
lop - [a] flea
loppy - flea-ridden
lug - external ear

mak - [to] make
marra - friend, pal, mate (masculine)
maaks - maggots (as on sheep's back in summer)
meat - food e.g. rabbit meat = a lettuce, dandelions, etc.
mell - sledge hammer
mense - 'newness' on best clothes
midgy, pl. midges - gnats
Mam / Mammy - Mother

nee - no (adj): "nee good"
neb - nose
neet - night
nithered - extreme feeling of cold
noo - now
nowt - nothing

on - of
ower - over
owt - anything

Pace-egg - dyed or painted hard-boiled egg at Easter
paddy - frog
pant - village water pump
pawky - fussy, overly particular (esp. of a child)
penker - small egg, the first egg(s) of a pullet
pit - coal mine
pitmen - miners
plodge - [to] wade, paddle e.g. at sea-shore
ploat - [to] pluck feathers off hen, etc.
poss - [to] agitate posser when washing clothes
posser / posstick - wooden, handled object used in washing clothes
put - particular work in a coal mine

quim - female pudenda

ram - rancid (re butter. bacon)
rax - [to] stretch, strain (an object)
recklin - runt o f a litter (pigs)
reesty - rotten (of bacon)
reet - right
rive - {to] tear
rolly - four-wheeled, flat, farm cart, with front wheels plus small driver's platform swivelling

scallions - spring onions
sea-fret - fine rain, heavy mist
shirley - [to] repeatedly shovel mixture of coal and coal dust to top of pile, to reveal larger pieces of coal
shuggy-boat - small fairground swing for 2 children, with upholstered ropes like bell-ropes
sek - such
skelp - smaking blows
snaa - snow
sneck - horizontal bar at an outdoor gate plus the pivoted thumb-lever which lifts the sneck. "rattle the sneck" - vibrate the thumb-lever without lifting the 'latch' to draw attention to caller
spuggy - sparrow
spelk - small wooden splinter caught in skin
stack stob - pointed stick used in thatching stacks
stee - ladder
stithe - unpleasant, smokey atmosphere
stot - [to] bounce
swale - [to] burn heather on moors

t' - the
tak - [to] take
tatie - potato tatie-pie - potato clamp (heap of potatoes covered in straw then earth, for storage)
tew - tiresome wriggling by a child
the / thoo - thee, thou (2nd person singular)
thon - that (over there)
thowt - thought
throstle - thrush
tiggy - game of 'touch'
tup - male (entire) sheep, ram
turnep - turnip or swede
tuther - the other
[to] twist - subdued complaining, crying (by child)
Tyke - Yorkshire person

varra - very

weel - well, in good state
winny - furze, gorse
wisht - be quiet, 'shush!'
wee - who
why-aye - definitely yes
wi' - with
to get wrong - get into truble, be punished

yam - home
yon - that (over there)